Pakistan Trade & Transit Facilitation

Transit & Trade Corridor

National Trade Corridor Improvement Programme (NTCIP)

Regional

NTCIP represents Pakistan's ambitious and extensive trade, transport and transit facilitation programme. The NTCIP objectives range from automation of port clearance systems, to reducing cargo dwell time, to building new infrastructure, to increasing overall efficiencies in each segment of its port and border management.

The Government of Pakistan is pursuing a major initiative around the National Trade Corridor (NTC) to reduce the cost of trade by improving transport logistics infrastructure and services. The Government aims to bring the quality of transport services to international standards. This will reduce the cost of doing business in Pakistan and enhance export competitiveness, accelerate industrialization and sustain the high economic growth achieved in recent years.

The National Trade Corridor Improvement Program (NTCIP) hinges on a consensus building process with all stakeholders through informed consultation that focuses on: (i) quick results through policy interventions, systematic and procedural improvements, and cutting administrative red-tape involving small investments; (ii) longer term higher cost investments (with pragmatic investment assessment from the private sector); and (iii) deep rooted institutional reforms to ensure sustainability.

Since the program concept was approved by the Prime Minister in August 2005, committees have been created for each of the six sectors involved in NTC with representatives from both the public and private sectors. The six sector committees are under the umbrella of the Cabinet NTC Task Force which is chaired by the Planning Commission as a permanent secretariat and reports directly to the Prime Minister. The Task Force meets quarterly to review progress in implementation of the NTCIP against agreed targets and performance benchmarks.

Objectives

In essence, the NTCIP represents a medium term transport master plan for the country and systematically covers all infrastructure and services that support trade logistics. The Government has adopted a holistic and integrated approach which encompasses the public and the private sector, services and infrastructure, reforms and investments, and the various sectors which are responsible for the level of performance of the corridor (highways, road transport, ports and shipping, civil aviation, railways, customs and trade logistics). The period covered is slightly beyond the period of the Medium Term Development Framework (2005-2010) that was approved in May 2005.

Outcomes of NTCIP

NTCIP links the entire trade logistics network of services and infrastructure in Pakistan. Utilization of the key parts of this corridor is already more than 80% of existing capacity. It is projected that demand will double by 2015. It is estimated that inadequate performance of the transport sector costs the economy 4 to

6 percent of GDP each year. In 2006, domestic transport represented (on average for 18 products) 1.29 percent of the final value of the commodities against a targeted value of 0.80 percent to be competitive at global level. Improved external (as opposed to in-house) logistics would generate savings in costs of non- factor services estimated at US$ 525 million annually. Specifically, the key outcomes to be achieved under the program include:

• Reduced share of domestic transport and cost of non-factor services in the total value of commodities;

• Overall reduction of transport and transit costs and times for goods using the National Trade Corridor;

• Increase rail share of long distance traffic of freight;

• Reduction in the operating deficit of railways, with objectively determined and targeted subsidies;

• Better corridor user satisfaction;

• Improved safety and reliability of transport operations;

• Improved procurement practices of the involved entities; and

• Enhanced accountability of participating entities in the improvement program.

Since the launch of the NTCIP, some early gains of the program have already been achieved. These include: (i) reduction of port entry charges by 15 percent; (ii) reduction of port dwell times to one day for certain operations; (iii) reduction of customs clearance times for containers to less than one day; and, (iv) increase in daily freight express trains in the main north-south part of the corridor from 1 to 5 reducing up-country container travel times by 10-20 percent.

Categories

Follow Us

The grid has multiple search criteria. For a general search, input the 'search word' into the top column you want to search. Select 'contain' from the drop-down menu below, and hit 'enter' The search results will be automatcally populated. Please NOTE the table is Ajax-enabled, which means it won't refresh, and will display results in a seamless way, which can be seen usually in few seconds. Alternatively, you can press the 'sort buttons before the label in each column in the header to sort the records in ascending or descending order.

You can stretch the column size by clicking on the column grid to suit your requirements.